Colin Criss of the HPR sits down with Mo Cowan, who served as the interim US Senator from Massachusetts in 2013 and as Governor Deval Patrick’s chief legal counsel and chief of staff, to talk about future plans, the ins and outs of the Senate, Deval Patrick, and bow ties. You can access additional content … Read more
General James E. Cartwright served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest ranking military officer, from August 2007 to 2011. He previously served as Commander of the United States Strategic Command and devoted nearly 40 years of service to the United States Marine Corps before retiring from active duty … Read more
Two weeks ago, when Alfonso Cuaròn’s Gravity rocketed to the top of the box office, Neil deGrasse Tyson went into a well-publicized Twitter rant about the technical inaccuracies present in the film. Tyson went on to say that he truly enjoyed the film, and to clarify that his criticisms were actually a compliment to the … Read more
After the 2012 election cycle that was characterized by unprecedented campaign budgets and unparalleled spending, pundits and citizens alike were shaking their heads. Although $6,285,557,223 had been spent, people questioned why. Despite the breathtaking amount of money that poured into these campaigns, the political surface appeared starkly similar: President Obama was reelected, while the Democrats … Read more
When former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos entered the lecture room, the atmosphere suddenly became quiet as the audience took in this peculiar sight: an elderly man who looked so down-to-earth and normal. He blended in perfectly with the Harvard faculty in a way that contrasted with the grand, presidential images we had seen minutes before … Read more
Let’s suppose, for a moment, that divestment would cripple the energy industry’s profits margins. Thanks to their decreased capital, they’d drill less, would lose political sway, and CO2 emissions eventually would fall; all together, divestment directly takes down the energy industry, started thanks to one college’s endowment divesting from fossil fuels. OK, now back to … Read more
The government shutdown has rightly dominated the news since the beginning of October. It is beyond disappointing that members of Congress were unable to resolve their ideological differences for the sake of the American people. While the loss of international prestige and the failure of the political system to function will ultimately hurt members of … Read more
The long-awaited and elusive Trans-Pacific Partnership may finally be in reach. The TPP has the potential to be the largest trade agreement in world history, with the countries in the Partnership collectively producing 40 percent of global GDP, significantly more than even the European Union. The deal is also structured in a way that China … Read more
For interested Harvard students, Harvard’s “Government Week” is now in full swing. The events run through next week, and campus visitors will include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, State Department, and New York Fed. A complete list of the events is here. The show will go on, shutdown or no shutdown.
As a mathematician-cum-philosopher-cum-social critic who published 66 books and more than 2,000 essays, Bertrand Russell was totally unqualified to promote leisure at the expense of work. But in a 1935 article for Harper’s Weekly titled “In Praise of Idleness,” that’s exactly what he did, and by many accounts he was quite successful. The nuts and bolts … Read more